Because I was going to be taking my no-internet induced bloggy hiatus but then this happened and I just had to tell you about it. So sorry.
I was moving the washer and dryer just to be able to sweep a sock out from behind that I saw. As I moved the dryer, I saw a lot more was back there. Things I know was never ours. Lovely, no? Anyways, I also found this.
And just so you aren't thinking it's no big deal, let me show you this.
We are back at the apartment one last time to briefly enjoy the internet and clean. We've only got about an hour left here so I need to make this short and get to cleaning! Life is a crazy, messy thing right now but it is bound to slow down one of these days, right? : )
So have I mentioned yet how much I hate moving? Cuz I do. I really, really, REALLY do. All my stuff lost in boxes. And while some people see a packed box as an accomplishment, I see it as something that has yet to be moved and unpacked. Everything else is almost done, but I have not even STARTED the kitchen. I plan to get pretty much everything done but the kitchen today and tomorrow when the guys are moving stuff into storage, I'll do the kitchen.
Today, I felt a little exiled while the guys were loading from the front of the house and I was packing the back. BUT it's cooler back here. Tomorrow, I'll be more in the thick of things but it will be hot. Very hot.
And the only thing I hate more than moving: heat. Humid heat.
I'm thinking we'll get done in time though. As I speak (er, type) the guys are roofing the storage shed so we can move all the storage stuff into it tomorrow. I'm supposed to be packing but I'm taking a break. But, as I said, I'm nothing if not repetitious, or wordy, I think I can get everything but the kitchen pretty much done tonight.
I really need to stop wasting time now. But I don't want to! I HATE MOVING!!!
Can I just take a few seconds at the end of this day to let you in on a little personal insight I just gained? I've been feeling guilty about feeling tired. It's rather silly, but if I am tired before all the things on my to-do list are done, I feel guilty about being tired. I somehow got it into my head that it's only OK to be tired when everything has been done. And sometimes my body does not agree with that. I'm too tired to think this through any farther, say, to a solution, but the little light bulb just came on and I thought I'd share.
Also, I just found a mobile blogging option and have attempted to use it. We'll see if it works. (Not this post. A post with a picture of a rainbow I took in town.)
So the TBCWEA's conference this weekend was AMAZING as usual! I got some really amazing information and then slept from about 1 or 2 yesterday afternoon till 8ish. And then slept last night. So, I am behind on packing (even more than before) and, though I really want to tell you about driving in Dallas and the conference, I am afraid I won't have time to post before the move and after we will be without internet for awhile...
So I read these books by Bodie Theone. There were two series and basically one was about the events leading up to WWII and the other about Palestine after WWII. It's fiction but her husband does tons of research for her books and, while it's a narrow view, they are very informative and interesting. (And, when finding that link, I totally realized there's more books than I thought! Oh my WORD, now I have to find them!)
So, because I can never have too much information and apparently have a slight problem with OCD, I started watching a documentary about WWII. It's done in Britain, so it's different than what we learn about in school. We kinda skip over, uhhh, half of it. It's like this: "There was Hitler. He was bad. He tried to take over Europe. There was a lot of fighting in France. Bunch of French cowards ran away. Then there was some bombing in England. Then, PEARL HARBOR. JAPANESE. WE HELPED IN EUROPE. WE WON!" But there's kinda more to it than that, you know? I'm finding out cool things about what happened before the USA got involved and the parts the USA wasn't involved in and it's really a different and broader view.
(Also, because it was made in Britain, sometimes I need subtitles for the people speaking English! The Italians, French, Germans, and Russians who are speaking English as a second language, I can understand. The English guys? They need to visit Henry Higgins. Seriously. "In Hartford, Hsomething, and Hampshire, hardly anything ever happens!" "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.")
Anyways, I'm sure it will surprise you all that I've become a little information obsessed and have been kinda doing research about WWII. It usually starts with me googling one thing, reading about it in Wikipedia, and then clicking on other things that catch my attention in that article. (It's the same reason Mrs. Hearbst would get mad at me in third grade when it took me a really long time to do the dictionary exercises. I would just get so distracted by the other interesting things on the page!) So I was reading something and came across "goosestepping." Now, I knew what goosestepping was, but I couldn't help myself. When I clicked it, I found out that there are some countries that still do it! Of course, this led me to YouTube.
I first found this video first.
Really, there's some major stretching that goes on before that. But extremely impressive. I especially am impressed with the stairs and the flawless transitions.
However, as we previously established, I couldn't stop there. Since that was the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Russia, I looked for a video of our guys doing the same at Arlington. Except they don't walk like that.
OK, remember how there was talking on that Russian video? And there didn't seem to be any reverence? Well, let me tell you, we don't do it that way in the good ol' US of A. No, sir.
Notice the quiet (well, except for the siren in the background).
Wanna know how we keep it that way? The guy asks for it in that last video. Wanna see how we enforce it?
This video won't embed. Watch it first and then the one below.
What cracks me up is that they say "it is requested that all visitors remain behind the chains and rails" and "it is requested that everyone maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times." I'm sorry, requested? There is no arguing with that. None. Zero. I don't know if they would use deadly force to enforce those rules, but they sure sound like they could. With their bare hands.
So to sum up this post, I think this was better than the post I was going to write about the 4th of July. Because that post was gonna make fun of firefighters running away from fireworks that accidentally exploded too soon. Like, umm, on the ground too soon. (And they were complaining about wearing their full turnout gear on such a hot day! All they were doing is lighting a few fireworks, right? lol) But this? This is better. This country's reverence for it's fallen soldiers and the men protecting that reverence makes for a much more patriotic story!
Now, I'm off to make sugar cookies for my class tomorrow. Because I'm insane and don't have enough to do between packing for Dallas and packing to move and doing the laundry that will enable me to pack for Dallas. And water day. Oh, the insanity...
It's been a year and a month and six days since I started a blog. And I didn't even realize it till I read Jessica's post today. Oops. Oh, well. It's rude to throw yourself a party, anyways, right? : )
But, as I was thinking about blogging about the 4th, (I haven't yet, though, because the 5th I went swimming with my little friend E and her Momma M and E and I both got pink eye! So I've been sick and semi-packing, though I really should be doing lots more!) I started reading over some of my past posts. Good Lord, my life is deja vu!
Remember how proud I was of my packing accomplishments? I wish I could say the same this year. I think I'm stalling because I don't want to move. But I want to be in the position moving will put us in. So I really need to pack! Yet here I sit.
Anyways, in lieu of a new, original, and what I think will turn out to be hilarious post, if I ever get to, it post about the 4th, and also, in lieu of a little packing time (people! I'm gonna regret this in the next two weeks!!!) here are some of my favorite posts.
Sometimes, the comments are the best part! Also, I find it interesting that they are mostly from last year (the first half of my blog year) and that last year I wrote many more posts than this year (the second half). I started out strong with this blog thing but I've just not been keeping it up lately. A big part of that is probably the same reason I was so much better prepared to move last year. I just flat-out had more time. And, I worked really, really super hard and didn't let myself "fix" any of the posts I went back to read. So, yes, there are grammatical errors and things I could clarify. And, yes, it drives me a little batty that they're there.
And now I'm going to take a shower and then pack until I fall down from exhaustion. I might get a whole 10 minutes in.
